A Four-year sustainable soya bean project has been launched in Tamale, Ghana. This aims to promote the production of the cash crop and improve on food security in Northern Ghana.
The project Sustainable Soya Bean Production in Northern Ghana (SSPiNG) seeks to facilitate public private partnership (PPP) on the output and input market, train smallholder farmers on best agronomy practices and provide mechanisation and financial services to farmers to increase soya beans production.
SSPiNG is being implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), YARA Ghana and WAGENINGEN University.
Project beneficiaries
About 400,000 smallholder farmers in the five regions of the northern belt are expected to benefit from the project, while about 150 agricultural extension officers will be engaged to facilitate and disseminate information to beneficiary farmers.
The Coordinator of SSPiNG, Professor Samuel Adjei-Nsiah, indicated that the project was in line with the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) which sought to promote food security in the country.
Aside from promoting sustainable soya beans production, it would also boost the income levels of the people of the area, particularly small holder farmers. A Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Crop Production, Mr. Yaw Frimpong, who launched the project, underscored the need to link the smallholder farmers to the inputs and outputs market, finance, equipment and information through larger commercial farmers and aggregators who had the capacity to invest in smallholder production.
Ghana’s annual soya beans market demand was more than 300,000 metric tonnes, with a corresponding annual production capacity of 180,000 metric tonnes, which was far less than the market demand.
